These Italian Islands Should Be on Your Vacation Bucketlist
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! " DEA/M These Italian Islands Should Be On Your Vacation Bucketlist Film directors return again and again to this scattering of isolated islands, for their their wild, dramatic beauty and an uncomplicated charm curiously untouched by time. The seafood happens to be pretty great too. by NELL CASEY APR 28, 2016 709 # $ % Michelangelo Antonioni's 1960 film L'Avventura begins with seven friends—a wealthy group of gorgeous, disaffected youth—boating on the Tyrrhenian Sea. Their affluence is visible in their languor, their restlessness expressed in their volatility. At one point they anchor off Lisca Bianca, a tiny islet that emerges like a monolith from the sea. When they discover that one of their party, a young woman, has seemingly vanished into thin air, they scramble up and down the jagged cliffs, playing out small personal dramas as they seek to resolve the larger one. The water crashes against the rocks; the sky opens to possibility. The landscape itself becomes another character—stunning, feisty, mysterious. This has always been the draw of the islands favored by Italians: extravagant nature with a profound feeling of isolation. There is bustle enough on the mainland, where extravagance of a different sort plays out against the backdrop of crowded cobblestone streets, grandiose exchanges, and an infuriating bureaucracy. When it comes time to leave it all behind, Italians want to feel transported. "That's what we do, especially the rich," a Roman friend told me. "They don't want to go to the beach with others. They want to escape civilization. So they go to these impossible-to-reach places and then they build a palace." ADVERTISEMENT - CONTINUE READING BELOW Nassau Charlottetown a partire da 86€Newport 113€ Providence Offerte in corso Offerte …in corso I ventured to the Aeolian paradises—seven UNESCO-protected isles scattered off the northeast coast of Sicily—where Antonioni captured the bewildered anxiety of privilege. These are some of the most secluded islands in the world, requiring arduous plane-car- ferry journeys from almost anywhere in Italy. Unless, that is, you are traveling on a private boat. But even then, capricious weather threatens—Aeolus, for whom the islands are named, is the Greek god of wind. "If the islands say no, you don't go," Beatrice Bulgari, a filmmaker and member of the luxury goods family, told me. These magnificent islands are prized all the more, then, for the difficulty of actually reaching them. Bulgari, who owns a house on Stromboli, the only Aeolian with an active volcano, travels regularly among all the islands. "I am lucky enough to have seen a lot of beautiful places in the world, but there is something very special about feeling like nothing in the middle of nowhere," she said. Bulgari recently shot a movie, The Lack, on Lisca Bianca, partially in homage to Antonioni. "I remember when I arrived for the first time, at 25 years old, and thought, What do people do here? But this nothing, you come to understand, is everything. You never experience it elsewhere." SALINA & ' COURTESY OF CAOPFARO I got a sense of what Bulgari was talking about after I arrived on Salina. It is the second- largest of the Aeolian islands, and it used to be called Didyme, the Greek word for twin —a reference to the island's two dormant volcanoes, Monte dei Porri and Monte Fossa delle Felci, which are just under and over 3,000 feet tall, respectively. Whereas Stromboli is defined by its active volcano ("You live with the madman," as Bulgari put it), Salina is the most verdant of the islands, thanks to an unusual combination of freshwater springs and volcanic soil. The impact, visually and physically, is profound. There is bougainvillea—always bougainvillea—draping the simple stone houses, but these welcome bursts of fuchsia are just the beginning. Strolling the main road to Santa Marina, one of the villages on Salina, I came across poppies, yellow gorse bushes, wild rosemary, prickly pear cactus, and caper bushes. (Here, the caper, grown to full maturity, is called a cucuncio and is closer to a green olive with a stalk.) There is also a salt lake, which, in an ecological collaboration characteristic of the island, was once mined for salt. (Salina means salt mill in Italian.) "It is a cherished agricultural island," said Alberto Tasca, CEO of Tasca d'Almerita, a top Sicilian family winemaker. He should know: Tasca grew up vacationing on Panarea, another Aeolian island, and when he and his family were on the boat home they always glimpsed an abundant vineyard on Salina. In 2001 they bought it, and in 2003 they opened the Capofaro Malvasia & Resort, an elegant hotel on the vineyard, from which Salina's own Malvasia sweet wine is produced. ADVERTISEMENT - CONTINUE READING BELOW Fiat 500 Paco Corso gratuito di La "pillola milionaria" Rabanne - L'ultima Trading: basta piegate il vostro QI in opera di Lapo Elkann buttare i soldi! soli 14 giorni!... (quattroruote.it) (financenews24.info) (saluteebellezamag) Shaped by volcanic activity thousands of years ago, Salina has dramatic cliffs that rise from the cobalt sea, forming numerous rocky swimming coves. The most famous beach is in Pollara, on the island's west side, where everyone directs you to see the sunset. "It is best there because it is more orange," my taxi driver explained as he rushed to get me to it on time. Scenes from the 1994 movie Il Postino, about Chilean poet Pablo Neruda's fictional friendship with his literary postman, were shot here. The beach has been so heavily visited since then, it is now partly blocked off, but it is possible to reach a peaceful cove and, yes, an excellent sunset view. Following a seemingly bleak tip, I visited the cimitero in Santa Marina. It is a startlingly moving place, with tiny black-and-white portraits on the graves. Behind it is a small pebble beach—adored by locals and still enough of a secret not to have an official name —with tiny fish darting through crystalline waters. & ' STEPS CARVED INTO THE ROCKY COASTLINE LEAD DOWN TO THE SEA AT POLLARA. DALLAS STRIBLEY/GETTY IMAGES Much attention has been brought to the Aeolian islands by various fashion and art stars who own houses there—Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana, Cindy Sherman (Stromboli); Maurizio Cattelan, the bad boy of the Italian art scene (Filicudi); the prominent art dealer Gérard Faggionato (Panarea)—but Salina has always stayed out of the spotlight. "It is not a place where people show off," Tasca said. "You might see the stars here, but they are quiet. Salina is about simplicity without any status symbols, just going deep into life." Alessandro Grassi, a publicist based in Milan, argued that all the islands are being remade in this image. "Yes, Madonna went sailing there," he said, "but there is also a new generation that cares about the future. They are thinking about these islands as an ecosystem for wine and food." To that end a powerful group led by British financier and philanthropist Ben Goldsmith formed the Aeolian Islands Preservation Fund last year; the U.K.-based non-profit supports sustainable environmental initiatives on the islands. On my last day, starting at the 17th-century church Santuario della Madonna del Terzito, I hiked the trail up Monte Fossa—the highest peak in the islands—and picked a bouquet of wildflowers among the eucalyptus and pine trees. Near the top I turned to see the green slope of Monte dei Porri and the tiny islands of Filicudi and Alicudi punctuating the sea below. I'd been there for a few days, but I felt the restoration of a month. I too hoped that Salina, both lavish and humble, would stay this way forever. ADVERTISEMENT - CONTINUE READING BELOW Where to stay: Capofaro Malvasia & Resort, with its new chef, Ludovico de Vivo. His caper ice cream sandwich is not to be missed (FROM $187, CAPOFARO.IT). Hotel Signum has a wonderful spa (FROM $167, HOTELSIGNUM.IT). Where to eat: Da Alfredo (011-39-90-984-3075), for granita and a pane cunzato (a Sicilian sandwich) on the waterfront. PANAREA & ' HOTEL RAYA ON THE ISLAND OF PANAREA. MATTHEW HRANEK/ART + COMMERCE From a distance Panarea is a breathtaking bit of boulder, only slightly larger than one square mile, with dramatic striations that resemble elephant skin. It is often described as the "Capri of the Aeolian islands," a wealthy retreat with a chic summer scene. Kate Moss and Uma Thurman have lounged on the terrace of the famed Hotel Raya, a stylish place that opened in the 1960s complete with a seaside disco that instantly put Panarea on every international jetsetter's map. "In July and August it's like a camp for beautiful young people," said Bulgari, whose own 17-year-old daughter has spent many a night dancing at the Raya. But regulars take pains to renounce its party reputation, usually by invoking its past. "When I started going, there was no electricity and no running water," said Antonio Monfreda, an Italian creative director who has been visiting the island since his parents bought a house there in the 1970s. "Star watching and volcano watching"—there is a terrific view of Stromboli smoking a few miles away —"were the great activities." These days Panarea appeals to the Janus in people—two faces looking in opposite directions—in that you can be seen and you can hide. "It is Capri as I imagine it in the last century," Monfreda added. "When the sun goes to sleep behind you and shines on the rocks, they change from intense yellow to green to violet.